Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Winter 2007The film “Hard XS” is now in the shops. Given 6 out of 5 stars by Colin Wells in Climb Mag, He says that Sandy Ogilvie’s film of Ian and Chris Cubitt climbing on the Dover chalk cliffs is “simply outstandingly original” and the footage of Ian and Tim Emmett on a new grade IX in Scotland is “brilliantly hard-core winter front-line action” You can order the film here or here.

Autumn 2007This year’s Kendal Film Festival saw the premier of “Psyche”, Alastair Lee’s new film featuring Ian’s footage of his trip to Patagonia. This went down well with audiences and judges with the “Patagonian Winter” section winning the Mountain Adventure category and the whole film taking the People’s Choice award. Psyche is available in stores or here.

Summer 2007Ian and Andy Kirkpatrick chose Patagonia as their summer holiday destination. August is in the middle of Patagonia’s winter of course so the pair pretty much had the place to themselves. Climbing wise the trip wasn’t that successful; only one days climbing in a month however the pair did get plenty of film footage. This will feature on Alastair Lee’s forthcoming film Psyche.

Spring 2007March saw Ian joining Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Kenton Cool, climbing the legendary North Face of the Eiger over 5 days. Ian filmed Ran for ITN, making live broadcasts for the evening news and for an hour long programme that went out on ITV3. Ian’s photographs also featured on the covers of the Observer and Sunday Times newspapers. The climb was in aid of the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity and to date has raised over £2.5 million.

Spring 06 Film ProjectsIan has changed sides of the lens and been performing in front of the camera for two upcoming film projects. The first was an ascent of Mick Fowler's legendary chalk test piece The Great White Fright on the Dover sea cliffs. Climbed with Chris Cubbitt and filmed by Sandy Ogilvie and Caravan Films for an as yet unnamed film project. The second was the ascent of a new Scottish winter route "Pick 'n Mix" climbed with Tim Emmett. Filmed by Rich Heap and Ben Pritchard of Slackjaw Films for possible inclusion in their latest film Hard XS, which it is hoped to be released by the end of the year.

Summer 06The big project for Ian this summer is a 10 week expedition to Gasherbrum IV in Pakistan. Climbing with his old team mates Kenton Cool and John Varco they hope to climb the Shining Wall route first climbed by Voytek Kurtyka and Robert Schauer. This pair were amongst the best alpinists of their day but were still so pushed they couldn't make the summit. Ian and team are going to see if this time they can.

June 2005 Everest Summit. Ian has just returned from 3 months in Tibet with Polar Exploration legend Sir Ranulph Fiennes on expedition to the North Ridge of Everest. As well as photographing for The Times newspaper and broadcasting live for the BBC Ian managed to reach Everest's summit. Keep an eye out for a forthcoming gallery of Ian's Everest's shots.

Spring 2005 Cold Haul DVD finally released. After a long gestation period the DVD of Ian and Andy Kirkpatrick's epic second ascent of the Lafaille Route on the Dru has eventually hit the shops. Winner of several awards their film reveals the full horror (and humour) involved in cutting edge winter alpinism. Available from most good retailers or direct from freshasalettuce. Review

The end of 2004 proved a busy time with photo shoots in Chamonix and Colorado, plus the appointment of Ian as the mountaineering editor for the new UK publication Climb Magazine.

But perhaps the highlight was Ian's successful expedition to the Indian Garwhal Himalayas with American climber John Varco. The pair managed the first ascent of the North West face of Saf Minal (6911m), a K2 look alike peak on the edge of the Nanda Devi sanctuary. Ian has been touring with his slide show of their ascent and the story will be appearing in several publications.